Over the years, the message that I’ve received loud and clear from Joey DeFrancesco is that burning, soulful, blues- and bop-based organ jazz has the power to excite and uplift. Now, the 45-year-old keyboard virtuoso’s new album, released this month, communicates an additional message.

The CD’s title, Project Freedom, as well as the name of DeFrancesco’s new band, The People, nod to what DeFrancesco wants to convey. So do the titles of originals by the leader, including The Unifier, Peace Bridge and Stand Up. If you still haven’t gleaned that DeFrancesco is concerned about the state of the world today and wants to do something about it, then consider the thrust of the disc’s covers: Imagine, Lift Every Voice And Sing, So Near, So Far and Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come.

I’m reminded that the recently released and similarly named jazz album, Meditations On Freedom by saxophonist Noah Preminger, also includes a cover of A Change Is Gonna Come. That excellent album, which I reviewed here, was released on the day that U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and it’s not a stretch to call it a protest album.

DeFrancesco’s definitely has civil rights on his mind, but his disc is more about inspiring feelings of peace and unity and less so about protesting, I think. Here’s a clip in which DeFrancesco and his bandmates tell interview Brian Pace just that:

Message aside, it’s notable that Project Freedom features DeFrancesco at the helm of a new, slightly larger band. Most often, he’s featured himself as the apex of an organ trio. The new album includes DeFrancesco’s trio bandmates guitarist Dan Wilson and drummer Jason Brown, but also Australian-raised saxophonist Troy Roberts, who brings an earthy, compelling voice to DeFrancesco’s music. Overall, the music has extra breadth, thanks not only to Roberts’ horns, which on occasion are electronically processed, but also because of DeFrancesco’s use of electric piano and trumpet in addition to organ.

While DeFrancesco receives top billing and his abilities are frequently remarkable, his band mates distinguish themselves as soloists too. As a counterpoint to Roberts’ brawny playing, Wilson is a limber presence. When he isn’t deftly propelling the music, Brown steps up with the kind of exuberant playing the DeFrancesco’s direct, robust music calls for.

From top to bottom, the album’s music is tautly drawn, well constructed and filled with articulate, exciting solos. Imagine is its brief organ invocation. The title track, which follows, begins with a rumbling Coltrane-style minor-key call-to-order, followed by Brown having his Elvin-styled say. Then there’s a transformation into a racing, minor-key swinger that features a flurry of traded choruses and phrases and finally some simultaneous soloing by DeFrancesco, Roberts and Wilson to bring home a sense of urgency and stress the band’s cohesion.

Some tunes are more mellow and groovy, such as The Unifier and One. The former hits a ’70s vibe with DeFrancesco adding electric piano and Roberts adding effects, while the latter features DeFrancesco chilling on muted trumpet and blazing on electric piano. Better Than Yesterday is a happy tune that alternates between waltzing and 4/4 swinging. Lift Every Voice And Sing and A Change Is Gonna Come are disc highlights, filled with serious blues-drenched testifying, especially from Roberts. Peace Bridge is a dreamy ballad that makes me just a little think a bit of Coltrane’s Naima. So Near, So Far, after its funky intro, is a solid rendition of that tune by the British jazz drummer Tony Crombie that Miles Davis famously recorded.

Karma, it turns out, is a medium, deep-in-the-tradition minor-key blues that shifts gears after DeFrancesco’s retro, two-feel solo into a crisp, walking feel behind Roberts and later prolongs the fun with some extending coasting after its outhead. While I don’t want to overly describe DeFrancesco’s Stand Up, I’ll just say that it has the extra swagger and pizzazz that befits an album’s closer, and that’s not simply because of the extra beat in its time signature.

In this time of Trump, I won’t be surprised if we see more concept albums such as DeFrancesco’s from the jazz community. Meanwhile, the organist’s album is a shining example of jazz virtues expressing an affirmative, progressive viewpoint that resonates now more than ever.

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